HARTFORD >> With a little more than a month left in the current session of the state legislature, state leaders are looking to address consumer complaints about alternative electric suppliers concerning spiking prices and questionable business prices.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other top state leaders announced a package of legislative proposals — what they called the “Electric Supplier Consumers’ Bill of Rights” — that they hope will the problems. Since the beginning of the year, there have been more than 1,300 complaints about Connecticut’s electric supplier market, according to state officials.

“This past winter, as demand spiked and prices rose, we heard from far too many consumers who complained of deceptive practices and unjustified rate increases by electric suppliers,” Malloy said in a statement. “We are asking legislators to consider a package of proposals that will arm consumers with better information, allow them to make the choices that are right for them, and crack down on unfair and deceptive practices. These proposals will give consumers the information, the certainty, and the security they deserve when buying electricity.”

The introduction of legislative proposals to address the issue comes just a few weeks after the state’s <URL destination="http://www.nhregister.com/business/20140204/connecticut-utility-regulators-set-hearings-on-probe-into-alternative-electric-supplier-market">Public Utilities Regulatory Authority held a series of hearings on complaints into the alternative electric supplier market in Connecticut.

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</URL>State Senate Majority Leader Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, said he supports legislation “that would make purchasing electric power clearer and more transparent to consumers.” But Looney said because there is so little time left in the 2014 session, the provisions that Malloy introduced Tuesday would have to be added to existing bills that have already been moved out of legislative committee.

“It can be done if there is enough broad-based support for this,” he said. This year’s legislative session ends May 7.

Joining Malloy in making the announce about the legislative proposals was state Attorney General George Jepsen and Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz, who represents the state’s utility ratepayers.

Jepsen said the level of complaints about the alternative suppliers of electricity make it “exceedingly clear that greater disclosure in the electric supplier market is necessary to protect consumers.”

“The goal of this legislation is to provide consumers with more information so that they can make the best choices when shopping for an electric supplier and to empower regulators to crack down on deceptive marketing practice within the industry,” he said in a statement. “Consumers also need much greater flexibility to quickly extract themselves from expensive variable-rate plans and to get back onto standard service, which has proved to be a much better deal for the majority of ratepayers.”

Katz called electricity “an essential life service” and said consumer should not be overcharged for it.

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen an ever-increasing number of complaints from consumers about being misled, overcharged, or switched from one rate to another without their consent,” Katz said in statement. “There should be no surprises for consumers when it comes to electricity.”

Earlier this year, the state’s electric utility companies reported that some suppliers were charging rates well above — in some cases, more than double — the standard service rate of just over nine cents per kilowatt hour.

When the state electric power market was opened up to third-party providers in 2000, consumers were give the choice of allowing the state’s legacy utility companies to purchase power for them and pass along the cost they paid for the electricity, which became know as the “standard service offer.” The legislation proposed Tuesday does not address standards service offer customers, who stayed with companies like The United Illuminating Co. and Connecticut Light & Power.

The proposed bill would require new consumer and rate disclosures, decrease the switch delay when consumers choose to leave a supplier, impose a three-month fixed-rate requirement in supplier contracts and empower PURA to develop new regulations on sales and telemarketing practices.

Nora Duncan, state director for the Connecticut branch of the AARP, said she is encouraged by what Malloy and other state leaders are proposing.

“While we have not seen the legislative language associated with the Governor’s proposals, AARP is encouraged by his remarks and his recognition that the third party electric supply market needs to be fixed,” Duncan said in statement. “We consider this is a starting point and are hopeful that we can achieve meaningful consumer protections this year. We are also well aware that the devil is often in the details.”

The announcement of the legislative proposals comes after Connecticut AARP on Monday announced the results of recent survey done among the state residents 50 and older.

Nearly three out of four people surveyed by Connecticut AARP feel elected officials are not doing enough to help people affected by rising energy costs. Seventy-two respondents supported limiting the number of times an alternative electric supplier can market to a customer to once a year.

Call Luther Turmelle at 203-789-5706. Have questions, feedback or ideas about our news coverage? Connect directly with the editors of the New Haven Register at AskTheRegister.com.